The heath was green on
Carrigdhoun.
Note: Mary O'Hara changes the order of the
verses, so the first becomes a flash-back memory.
Bright shone the sun o'er
Ard-na-Lee
A
history
of
the
song
is
summarised
further
down on this page
The dark green trees bent trembling down
To kiss the slumbering Owen na Buidhe.[Owenabui]
That happy day -- 'twas but last May --
'Tis like a dream to me,
When Donal swore, aye o'er and o'er,
We'd part no more a stor mo chroidhe.[asthore machree]

On Carrigdhoun the heath is brown.
The clouds are dark o'er Ard-na-Lee,
And many a stream comes rushing down
To swell the angry Owen na Buidhe.
The moaning blast is sweeping past
Through many a leafless tree,
And I'm alone, for he is gone,
My hawk has flown, ochone mo chroidhe.

Soft April showers and bright May flowers
Will bring the summer back again,
But will they bring me back the hours
I spent with my brave Donal then?
There's but a chance he's gone to France
To wear the Fleur-de-Lis.
But I'll follow you, my Donal Dhu,
For still I'm true to you mo chroidhe.

********

The song was
originally called "The Lament of the Irish Maiden" and was writtenby Denny Lane
from Cork. It is a political song telling of the flight fromIreland of
Sarsfield's "Wild Geese" in 1691. The air for Carrigdhoun was theinspiration for
the music to the Percy French song "The Mountains of Mourne.It was the tune
written for Thomas Moore's "Bendemeer's Stream" (by Charles
Marshall? or is it justs 'traditional'', chosen by Moore, arranged by
Marshall?)http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=11516http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/bendmr.html

As you will
appreciate the rhythm of the words and the music in Carrigdhoun is
quite
different from Bendemeer or Mourne
and the melody moves much more subtly in Mary O'Hara's rendering.